10 things in our old cell phones that we miss in our today’s smartphones

Folks, do you still remember the time when you purchase a cell phone back in the days when Smartphone was not a mainstream device in the market. We used to get relatively bigger boxes for a small-sized cell phone packed with headphones, chargers, etc. And having a piece of that provided you great pleasure and joy because you are an owner of a mobile phone. That was a huge deal back in the day.

Since then, we have covered a long path and witnessed the revolution of mobile phones and modern technology that we have today in our daily lives. From the black and white set to a color set, from multimedia set to touch screen one, and from the Nokia N series to smartphones today we own.

Our current mobile phone offers a large scale of features that it can compete with other electronic devices like TV, PC, camera, etc. We already know the full menu. But some of the basic things are missing from the current line-up that we used to have from the good old ones. And sometimes we really miss them and cherish them in our memories.

So let’s, talk about the missing things.

Old Phones features we missed in modern smartphones

1. Easily Removable Battery

Once normal but today it is a rarity that you can’t replace the battery of your phone on your own. The removable nature of the set allowed us to replace it from a drained battery to a fully charged one if needed or simply change a damaged battery with a new one with ease.

But today you can hardly find any set with this removable battery option. The permanently installed battery is not possible to replace on your own in case of any damage. We must rely on the service center for that drill and it takes time to replace it.

iPhone came into the market with a permanently installed energy storage device since the beginning. And from that day the road to extinction of removable batteries started. But it provided us the opportunity to make our phone waterproof and thinner in shape because of the non-removable and permanently installed feature.

 

2. QWERTY keyboard – faster than the touchscreen

The physical qwerty keyboard is one of the best things we enjoyed using in a cell phone in my opinion. Once you mastered yourself with this keypad you certainly didn’t want to go back to the basic keyboard. The user-friendly nature of this keypad is undeniable and you can ask especially any former BlackBerry guy to confirm it.

You can still find a Smartphone with a physical QWERTY keypad like BlackBerry Keyone. But the fast-changing world of technology is making it very hard to give us a proper user-friendly experience that we used to get in the past. The present digital keypads are also very good for typing but this is not that fast if you compare it with the physical one. And it eventually gets slower after using the phone for a short period of time. And it is not that error-free while typing like the old one.

 

3. Radio reception without the internet

For listening to music, podcast, or any radio station now we can use apps like Spotify or any other music platform. Sure you can hear any song you want at any time as your wish. But to do this, we need a very good internet connection with our phone and it will burn our net data for streaming any song or podcast.

Back in the day, the FM transmitter option enabled us to enjoy any regional radio station even without the internet at any time. And you do not need to avail any internet connection to access it. Sure the radio option is still available in present sets but we hardly use them or it is very difficult to connect with a certain radio station.

 

4. Pre-installed games like Snake

There is no room for argument that mobile gaming is on a whole another level nowadays. Along with some pre-installed games, you can download numerous games from the internet or play store. But most of the time you need to pay or purchase the digital game to play any further pre-installed games. And the current games take a lot of space and internet to play and perform.

On the other hand, in the past, the standard games which come with the set are free to play and very much entertaining as well. Everybody knows the famous snake game we played in the past. Such games were pre-installed, did not clog internal memory as they were very small in size and the option of updating or purchasing further game elements was not available at the time. They could not be deleted or erased. Simple yet entertaining and hassle-free are the things we miss today.

 

5. Reparability: earlier it was easy to fix and pocket friendly

Earlier, repairing a cell phone was much easier and pocket-friendly compared to the current situation. Especially before the touch screen era, a mobile was not so complex in nature and the defective parts were easy to replace without spending big. Parts were easy to available at a cheap price and the service center or even a local mobile repairing shop was worthy enough to repair any set in a short period of time.

But now if you struggle with a defective set that requires fixing then it might take a lot of time and money to fix it. And even after fixing it, you would not get the performance or comfort to use it. Many parts are very expensive and time-consuming to replace. Even if your battery needs replacement then you have to bring it to the service center to replace it because of its non-removable nature. And the longevity of the repaired one is next to nothing.

 

6. Display Readability in the sunshine- Monochrome display

There is no shame to accept the fact that we all struggled at some point when reading from the screen of our smartphones in the sunshine. The current display of any phone is certainly vastly advanced with modern technology and the experience is very affirmative for everyone. But it still struggled in front of the sunlight.

We need to set the brightness at a higher level to read any text from it while using it in front of the sun. But it takes some time to adjust to enhance the readability to use it.

While the old monochrome display of the backdated cell phones was a bit ahead of today’s modern screens. It was very easy to read from this type of display under any circumstances. We did not struggle much to use them in the sunlight or the night. This is one of the major things that modern tech is trying to beat. Even with the iPhone 12 the struggle is still there to rectify.

 

7. Security was not a thing to concern

Data security and digital theft are some of the most concerning aspects in the modern world of technology and the internet. Everything is connected via the internet or you can connect it to the internet to use or store some data. Without the net, our smartphone is not smart actually. From simple data to very important data, from personal info to any professional or official info, etc we can find through the net. Even our devices could be hacked for any evil intention.

So, it is a huge concern and headache to secure our data and avoid any sort of damage or loss. Yes, we use some products or software for security and safety but this is not enough to protect us from the potential threat.

But when we used the old school cell phones with no internet or less internet then it was much more secure and safe for us to use. We did not think of security at that time and things or system was different from the present world. That thing we miss badly delivered us a piece in our life.

 

8. Strong Build quality

The build quality of any electronic device is decreasing day by day. And there is no exception with the mobile phones where you can see and feel the quality difference from any old one to a new one.

I am sure you guys do know about the memes of the Nokia 1100 because of the top-notch build quality of it. The set and the memes are very famous even in the present day. From that set to the latest set, the quality factor is hugely recognizable and unconvincing.

Today you would not get that type of build quality from any of the available models from the market. We need to protect our devices with tamper glass, mobile back cover and use it with gentle care. And after all of this, there is no guarantee that it will stay intact after a fall or some sort of impact. But in the past even if you rough used any set, it usually stayed in good condition without breaking any part of it.

 

9. Easy to carry and use

How many of you have struggled to carry 6 or 6.5 inches of a smartphone in your pocket or bag? Honest answers only. Yes, today we use relatively thinner sets compared to the old school ones. But the overall inches or size of any phone is way bigger than the simple cell phones we used to have. The old ones were very handy to carry in your pockets or bag or even in your hand because of the small structure of it. But today it is a huge task to carry a phone and protect it.

The more advance we are getting with technology the more complicated our phones are becoming to operate. Especially for elderly people, it is more challenging to use it properly. Back then there was no need to upgrade or install any app to run any cell phone. The built-in nature of any set made it easier to handle or use. But now we must continuously update or install new apps to use them according to our needs or wish. And the size of the modern cell phones is giving us struggles to use them on one hand.

 

10. Trustworthy

The modern devices are not so trustworthy because it is very compact and complicated in nature filled with modern techs and tools which could malfunction and breakdown at any time. The chances of using a particular handset for a long time without any issues are next to impossible. To do so, you must compromise on certain ability of it and just hope that the set is not going to break down totally.

That is why I mentioned the trust partly because the old cell phones were more reliable in terms of longevity and smooth running. We could use it for a long time without compromising the limit of it. And we trusted it more than the modern ones for sure.

 

The reality is we just cannot go back to those old cell phones to use them as the main set of ours. Our daily life or professional life would not allow us to go back to the old school methods. We need to adapt every single time to cope with the modern world or else we won’t be able to compete with the world. And the habit we practiced using this modern tech will tie us with the current smartphones.

So, we should acknowledge the old school cell phones and cherish them in our memories and accept the present ones to elevate our lives.

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